Atlanta has one of the largt gay populatns the untry and sred full marks an LGBTQ rights x, but thgs are far om perfect
Contents:
- 50 YEARS AGO, ATLANTA’S GAY RIGHTS PH TOOK TO STREET FOR FIRST TIME
- SUPREME COURT’S GAY RIGHTS LG ECHO LONG-NNG GEIA BATE
- ATLANTA LBIAN AND GAY HISTORY THG PAPERS AND PUBLITNS
- MOVG TO LGBT ATLANTA, GEIA? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!
50 YEARS AGO, ATLANTA’S GAY RIGHTS PH TOOK TO STREET FOR FIRST TIME
* atlanta georgia gay rights *
Atlanta’s first gay pri march, on the bright Sunday afternoon of June 27, 1971, was virtually unregnizable om the 300, 000-person, multi-day celebratn has bee recent the Geia Gay Liberatn Front anized that first monstratn 50 years ago, there were no floats or cheerg spectators, no major rporate sponsors or ravans of panrg the cy that had jt birthed the civil rights movement, LGBTQ rights was nsired a radil issue that the polil tablishment, cludg many Atlanta progrsiv, wanted to stay away om. At that time, gay sex was still illegal unr state law, and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn characterized homosexualy as a mental would take s for attus and laws to change.
5, was six weeks after ps had raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay hangout Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, galvanizg the fight for LGBTQ liberatn. ” The wtern satire, which featured gay sex scen, had bee an immediate target of lol law enforcement who believed vlated obsceny laws. ExplorePhotos: Atlanta's Gay Pri march through the yearsRoughly 15 mut to the film, the lights flipped as police burst to the theater and locked the doors behd them.
SUPREME COURT’S GAY RIGHTS LG ECHO LONG-NNG GEIA BATE
“They were arrtg a lot of gay men, jt arrtg them on anythg they uld fd. ” But for many the te tent was enforcement had long targeted the cy’s LGBTQ populatn, particularly gay men, hangout spots like Piedmont Park and along what was known as “the strip” on Peachtree Street. In 1953, police ed a two-way mirror before arrtg 20 men for havg sex the basement toilets of one of Atlanta’s public that time, many gay Atlantans were closeted, even enterg heterosexual marriag, fearful they uld lose their jobs and be shunned by their fai if they were found out.
ExploreTimele: Major moments Atlanta LGBTQ historyBy the 1960s, a handful of bars began sprgg up near Midtown that quietly tered to gay clientele. ”Fed upAfter the Ansley raid, a group of fed-up activists huddled at New Morng Cafe near Emory Universy and lnched the Geia chapter of the Gay Liberatn members, who were young and mostly whe, many had cut their teeth on the other social movements of the 1960s, cludg women’s liberatn, anti-war and civil rights fights. )ExploreDrag, dgs and dis: When Atlanta was a center of the gay revolutnThe anizatn set up a table at the Piedmont Park Arts Ftival to mark the first anniversary of Stonewall June 1970, but shied away om holdg a full-sle march.
The group unfurled a lavenr “gay power” banner and began chantg “out of the closet, to the streets.
ATLANTA LBIAN AND GAY HISTORY THG PAPERS AND PUBLITNS
” As they walked, some hand leaflets to stunned churchgoers who had never seen a gay pri march before. Leadg the procsn was GLF lear Bill Smh, who embodied the ’s dis glamour that day wh a massive Barrymore llar, long siburns, thick-rimmed aviator eyeglass and a whe Courty of WSB Newsfilm Collectn, Universy of Geia LibrariCred: Courty of WSB Newsfilm Collectn, Universy of Geia Librari“We hope through this march people will realize that homosexuals are good, law-abidg cizens, that we do have rponsible jobs and posns, ” Smh told a reporter om WSB-TV. In one, the ps shouted ephets at a gay uple, only to be drowned out by chants of “gay is proud.
The Atlanta Journal didn’t send a reporter to the march — stead published eight paragraphs om Uned Prs Internatnal, a story that noted that 50 “self-proclaimed homosexuals” took Journal and the Constutn rarely vered the gay muny at that time, and when they did, LGBTQ rears often found the tone rctive or downright 1975, the Constutn ran a three-part seri on “the liftyl of Atlanta homosexuals” that heavily quoted a sex crim tective who said murrs volvg LGBTQ people were among the cy’s most vlent slaygs. “Gay people sist that the homosexual muny actually is very much a mirror of heterosexual society, that, like the heterosexual muny, they have their perverts and sicki and weirdos, but no more than their share, ” the story stated. “In fact, Atlanta’s gay muny do seem to have fe variety.
MOVG TO LGBT ATLANTA, GEIA? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!
John beme the cy’s first gay appotee when Mayor Sam Massell tapped him for the cy’s Communy Relatns Commissn.
But would take a few years for policians to beg regnizg the clout of the gay muny.
A turng pot, acrdg to Hayward, me 1976, when Mayor Maynard Jackson proclaimed June 26 as “Gay Pri Day” Atlanta, a move that prompted blowback om relig nservativ, cludg lls for his rignatn. Several of the cy’s most popular gay bars, for example, were notor for discrimatory polici that required Black patrons and women to provi multiple forms of ID to orr a drk. “We were often I thk margalized and left out om some of the stutn buildg that some of the whe LGBTQ folks were dog Atlanta, ” said Charl Stephens, executive director of the Counter Narrative Project, an Atlanta nonprof that seeks to elevate the voic of Black gay men.